


Rules of Court…ship

by cease



Category: DBSK|Tohoshinki|TVXQ
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-06
Updated: 2015-07-19
Packaged: 2017-12-07 15:41:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/750197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cease/pseuds/cease
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jung Yunho, youngest Senior Associate in the firm, passionate advocate, is sipping on his morning coffee, leaning against the wall of the elevator when a tall, handsome young man stumbles in, crashes into him and spills his coffee all over his Armani suit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Rules of Court…ship

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to my lovely beta Vampcircus1

It starts like this.

Jung Yunho, youngest Senior Associate in the firm, passionate advocate, technically brilliant, a favourite amongst the Senior Partners, is sipping on his morning coffee, leaning against the wall of the elevator when a tall, handsome young man stumbles in, crashes into him and spills his coffee all over his Armani suit. 

The young man’s name is Changmin, freshly admitted to the law, determined to hide the fact that his father is the _Shim_ in Shim  & Park Lawyers. Changmin is usually graceful and generally a good performer under pressure. Today is his first day at work and like the meticulous person that he is, Changmin leaves home an hour early in order to account for any unexpected traffic. What he couldn’t account for is some bird flying into the subway tunnel and causing an underground mayhem of ridiculous proportions (all the while Changmin is chanting _If I get fired on my first day, I’m gonna sue you all_ in his head, like the good lawyer that he is).

So there they were, Yunho stumbling onto the floor of the elevator from shock and from getting scorched by hot liquid, Changmin repeating apologies again and again and attempting to wipe at Yunho’s chest with his scarf (new season Alexander McQueen, Changmin mourns briefly). And just as they are both about to raise their heads and take a good look at one another, the lights in the elevator go out.

 _You have got to be kidding me_ , Changmin thinks. He’s frozen, hovering over some stranger with a very firm chest (his hand is still against the man’s chest, albeit separated by a thin silk shirt and the material of his own scarf). Yunho on the other hand, is thinking hard about where to place his hands – currently they are just kind of suspended in mid-air. He wants to reach out, steady the man and tell him that it’s fine, and maybe pull him back a bit because Yunho can’t get up with another body pressed so close to his own. Only it’s all dark and his eyes haven’t adjusted yet and what if he accidently pokes the guy’s eye out or something? He’s pretty sure that his professional indemnity insurance doesn’t cover situations like this. 

A moment later Changmin finally loses his balance and falls onto Yunho with a soft _umph_. Yunho’s arms automatically go around him for the catch, and then there is awkward silence. 

‘eerr…um……’ Yunho says coherently. 

Changmin swears.

  


* * *

  


As luck will have it, Changmin is assigned as Yunho’s junior. Yunho is ecstatic because this is the first time he’s had a junior of his own; someone who he can mentor and train and guide in the pursuit of justice. Changmin is glaring at the Partner who has just made the assignment (and who is coincidently his own father) and thinks rude thoughts in his head, because he is secretly still embarrassed about the elevator incident and besides, this Jung guy seems like a bit of an idiot from the way he keeps grinning at Changmin, all bright-eyed and stained shirt.

‘Best of luck for your first year of photocopying, I’m sorry I mean _lawyer-ing_ ,’ his father says with a look that says he’s simultaneously laughing at Changmin’s expense and resisting the urge to ruffle Changmin’s hair.

After his father leaves, it’s just him and Yunho standing there and Changmin can hear people around them whispering. Yunho has taken his suit jacket off and the ugly brown patch of drying coffee is clearly noticeable against the stark white shirt. Changmin’s own scarf is stained, not to mention his favourite Ferragamo shoes are now ruined from when he had accidently stepped into a puddle of spilled coffee in the dark elevator. 

This was not the way he wanted his first day to go. And if Changmin had to blame someone, it would be the smiling idiot in front of him.

He gives Yunho a smile that clearly says: _I may kill you in your sleep_ and Yunho’s 100-watt smile falters.

  


* * *

  


Changmin has heard horror stories of how juniors are made to do all the horrible jobs, like photocopying and sorting through mountains of material, but Yunho is actually pretty decent.

Actually, he’s really decent. Occasionally, he does ask Changmin to do mundane tasks, but he always does so with an apologetic smile. He more than makes up for it by copying Changmin in for all the correspondence and letting Changmin help with the drafting of court documents. They even discuss case strategies together, because it hadn’t take Yunho long to realise that Changmin is incredibly bright and a fast learner (and incredibly handsome and snarky) and he enjoys bouncing ideas off him. 

In return Yunho finds his calendar colour coded, with reminders at 5 minute intervals telling him to get his ass to his next meeting. His files, which were originally scattered across the floor of his office, are ordered alphabetically on the shelves he had forgotten existed. Technically these are things his secretary can do, but Changmin keeps assigning her tasks like photocopying and takes to organising Yunho’s professional life himself.

Yunho gets used to working with Changmin bustling in the background, sometimes directing accusations at him along the lines of, ‘Why can’t you clean properly?!’ and ‘Didn’t I just order these documents yesterday? Why are they in a mess again?’ 

Sometimes they fight. Loudly. Once, his father happened to be down his end of the floor and overheard him yelling at Yunho (‘I quit, I tell you! I’m gonna quit and you’ll have to organise your own briefs and then you’ll see! Ha!’). It wasn’t exactly his most mature moment and he felt immediately bad afterwards when Yunho looked at him with big eyes and muttered, ‘I’m sorry Changmin-ah… I was on the phone and looking for a document in a hurry. I didn’t mean to mess up your hard work …’ 

His father had then taken him aside and asked him seriously if he wanted to be reassigned or transferred to another department. Changmin could only blink at him in confusion because he hadn’t realised how their fights appeared to onlookers. Somehow he became flustered mid-explanation, about how he really didn’t mind working with Yunho because Yunho was good at his job, actually smarter than he looked, a good mentor and well, just a good guy… yeah…

  


* * *

  


And then one day, something happens.

After months of pulling late nights together and going painstakingly through boxes and boxes of documents and potential evidence, numerous mediations where Changmin watched Yunho ruffle feathers and had his own ruffled, they were finally going to trial. 

Changmin is walking behind Yunho like the good junior that he is, pulling a leather suitcase filled with their documents. He sees Yunho reach for the door to the court room and finds himself wanting to say something, _do something_. All of a sudden he’s getting embarrassingly emotional about this whole ordeal. He knows how much work Yunho has put into this case and how much a win would mean to him. Changmin just wants to say _good luck, you’ll be fine_ , but then Yunho would just smile at him in that confident and brave way that he does when he feels he has to and Changmin will see right through it because he can tell from the bags under Yunho’s eyes that he probably hadn’t slept a wink the night before, and because Yunho had put on his favourite suit for luck, and it all comes together to mean that Yunho is nervous. 

Before he knows what’s happening, Changmin finds himself grabbing for Yunho’s wrist and then he finds Yunho staring at him, just inches away.

‘Did I forget anything?’

Changmin smiles, because he has learned to be confident and brave too. 

‘No, everything is ready,’ he says. Then he reaches for Yunho’s tie, slowly, carefully straightening it and he lets his fingers linger. What is meant to be a gesture of support turns into something else as Changmin begins to feel Yunho’s body heat seep through the thin shirt against his fingers and when their gazes meet, Yunho’s eyes are so very, very dark. 

They are interrupted by a cough. ‘Excuse me, but you are blocking the entrance to the court room,’ their jerk of an opponent says with a cocky grin. 

Yunho and Changmin shuffle into the court room, cheeks aflame. 

They win, but Changmin doesn’t find out why (or what exactly tipped the Judge in their favour) because while the Judge is explaining his reasoning, he feels Yunho tug at his hand under the table and intertwine their fingers and he thinks it’s all a bit sappy and absurd but he can’t seem keep the smile from spreading across his face.


	2. Sequel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They begin their awkward office romance on Wednesday, which means that by lunch time Friday, every secretary, paralegal and PA in the firm knows about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to my lovely beta Vampcircus1 who is awesome and amazing.

They begin their awkward office romance on Wednesday, which means that by lunch time Friday, every secretary, paralegal and PA in the firm knows about it. There is apparently some secret "Support Staff mailing list", the members of which probably had enough blackmail material to take down even the chairman of the firm.

Changmin feels like every time he goes into Yunho’s office and shuts the door, he is being judged by at least ten pairs of eyes from various workstations in the vicinity. They’re not even doing anything remotely frisky. Most of the time Changmin’s filing or listening in to Yunho making conference calls, but it doesn’t stop the suggestive looks that are tossed his way when he comes out of the office.

Yunho fails to understand the meaning of subtlety and takes to calling him affectionate nicknames like "Changminnie" and "Changdol" and Changmin feels like his ears are burning every time he hears it. He spends more time worrying over what other people are thinking and whether it will get back to his father, than on the actual work, and Yunho, like the perfect golden boy he is, frowns at Changmin’s time sheet.

‘Changminnie, I know you stay late every night, so why are you billing so much less than you did last month?’

‘I don’t know,’ Changmin lies. Out of the corner of his eyes, he sees Yunho’s secretary stop typing and is completely sure she is now trying to eavesdrop on their conversation.

Yunho’s frown deepens. ‘Please make sure you meet the minimum billable hours each day.’

Changmin nearly throws a stapler at Yunho’s retreating form, because who's fault does the idiot think it is that Changmin keeps losing his concentration? Twenty minutes later, he receives the text:

Tuesday 16.40pm  
From: Jung Yunho  
To: Shim Changmin

_Changminnie do you want to have pasta for dinner? I can get some takeaway!_

  


Yunho has this ability to completely separate work from personal relationships, which Changmin absolutely hates. Changmin decides that no, he does not want to eat with Yunho after he had just been told off by him in front of their colleagues.

Tuesday 16.46pm  
From: Jung Yunho  
To: Shim Changmin

_Maybe curry then?_

　

Tuesday 16.48pm  
From: Jung Yunho  
To: Shim Changmin

_Changminnie?_

　

Changmin tries to ignore the messages, but he is still angry about the whole situation and bitter because his pride won’t let him agree to pasta even though he really does feel like spaghetti carbonara. He leaves his seat to go to the bathroom to splash water on his face and maybe clear his head, when the bathroom door opens and Yunho steps through.

‘Are you angry at me?’ Yunho asks and gently touches his shoulder.

‘No.’

‘Changdol…’

Changmin’s eyes twitch at the nickname and he’s suddenly pulling away from Yunho’s touch.

‘Don’t call me that when we are in the office, people will know. Don’t text me when we are in the office, people will guess if we are on our phones at the same time. Don’t loiter around my desk, people will talk!’

Yunho is silent for a long moment, before nodding.

‘Alright.’

His face is carefully blank and Changmin hates that too. He watches as Yunho walks away and when the bathroom door shuts behind him, he lets out a breath he didn’t realise he was holding.

Changmin buries himself in work for the rest of the week.

Yunho is unusually quiet and Changmin briefly panics that maybe he had accidentally broken up with Yunho without realizing it, but then Yunho sends him a snapchat image of himself giving the camera a thumbs up after Changmin sends him a draft letter of advice for review.

Just as they are finishing up on Friday, Changmin’s father waltzes into Yunho’s office and tells him to pack for a 6am flight the next morning to Tokyo. Apparently the Senior Associate from the Mergers and Acquisition team who was meant to go to Tokyo for a networking function suddenly came down with food poisoning. Yunho was picked as the replacement because he was good with clients and he could speak Japanese.

‘I can speak Japanese too,’ Changmin points out to his father over the dinner table.

‘Yes, but you hate talking to strangers and this is a networking function.’

‘I can network,’ Changmin insists.

‘It’s networking, not flirting,’ his father tells him.

‘He can’t flirt either,’ his sister chips in.

They have a weekend of texting, which at one point has Changmin staring at the words ‘what are you doing?’ for a whole five minutes before deciding the question was too loaded and difficult to answer. The truth is that he is sitting at home doing nothing but thinking about Yunho, but he isn’t stupid or desperate enough to tell Yunho that. He doesn’t want to seem clingy or pathetic.

Sunday 14.15pm  
From: Jung Yunho  
To: Shim Changmin

_I miss u_

 

Sunday 15.21pm  
From: Shim Changmin  
To: Jung Yunho

_Me too._

  


* * *

  


On Monday morning, Changmin attends a breakfast fundraiser that their marketing manager had signed him up for. He tries to make conversation with the other guests, but is eventually too distracted by the food on offer. When he walks into the office hours later, he finds the entire litigation department gathered in front of Yunho’s office. At first he thinks that maybe Yunho had accidentally hit the "Reply all" button again and sent lame law themed jokes to everyone in the firm. He sees Seohyun the intern wheeling a trolley of folders from the printer room and grabs her elbow.

‘I heard from Sooyoung who heard from Tiffany who heard from Taeyeon that Yunho-sshi’s secretary was caught in a compromising position with the chairman by his wife. Earlier this morning the chairman’s wife apparently made a big fuss in reception and now Yunho-sshi’s secretary has been let go.’

‘Yunho hyung’s secretary was having an affair with the chairman?’

Seohyun stares blankly at him for a moment before saying: ‘Oh, I forgot you weren’t at the Christmas party last year.’

‘Don’t worry,’ she says when he pulls a face, ‘Apparently she got a very generous payout to keep the details to herself.’

‘Then who is going to support Yunho hyung?’

Seohyun smiles at him. ‘Why Heechul oppa, of course.’

Kim Heechul, Changmin finds out very quickly, has a history with Yunho. Yunho is friendly with most people, but he is gentle and kind to Heechul in a way that he rarely is with others.

‘I miss your long hair,’ Yunho says as he walks past. He reaches to ruffle the blond locks. Heechul doesn’t even react, like it’s perfectly natural for Yunho to be touching his hair.

‘Don’t worry Yunho-ah, I’m still pretty enough to be your girlfriend.’

It sounds like an inside joke and they grin at each other happily. Changmin punches holes through his keyboard as he types.

He tries to talk to Yunho when everyone breaks for lunch, but Yunho is still in his office working and Changmin feels a little stupid asking him to go to lunch together when he was the one making a fuss about being too familiar in the office. Maybe they could go somewhere a little further away to avoid running into anyone they know.

‘Just leave the file on the chair Changmin, I’ll have a read once I’m done with this contract,’ Yunho says when Changmin knocks on his door.

Changmin isn’t even holding a file and Yunho hasn’t looked up from his computer.

‘Do you have a moment?’ Changmin asks.

Yunho pauses and looks at him, confused. Changmin gently shuts the door.

‘Your secretary …’

Yunho sighs. ‘Well everyone knew from the Christmas party, but I had hoped one of them had broken it off because he is married.’

He then rubs his temples, ‘Maybe you were right. There is enough drama in the office already. Perhaps it is best if we don’t make our relationship too obvious.’

Changmin stands silently by Yunho’s desk, plans of having lunch together flying out the window. At least this way his father would be less likely to find out about their relationship, he thinks, and tries not to acknowledge the sinking feeling in his stomach.

‘I’ll leave you to work then,’ he says finally as he heads towards the door, ‘I’m going for lunch now, do you want me to bring you back anything to eat?’

‘It’s okay,’ Yunho says as he turns back towards his computer, ‘Heechul’s getting me a burger.’

There is a bitter taste in Changmin’s mouth for the rest of the day that doesn’t go away no matter how many cups of hot chocolate he drinks.

  


* * *

  


‘I need these photocopied,’ Changmin says. He lets the heavy stack of documents land with a _thump_ on Heechul’s desk.

Heechul doesn’t even look up at him. He barely pauses in his typing to tell him:

‘I’m too busy to photocopy.’

The documents stay there for two whole days. It becomes clear that Heechul wasn’t going to touch them and Changmin reluctantly takes them back to do the photocopying himself.

He is in a foul mood when he reaches his desk after finishing the photocopying. Yunho chooses that moment to come out of his office. He yawns and rubs his eyes before catching sight of Changmin. A smile is on his lips and it looks like he is going to approach Changmin’s desk when he stops himself. His smile falters a little and he walks to Heechul’s desk instead. He offers Changmin a small shy smile before turning away.

Changmin can’t hear what they are talking about but he can hear Yunho’s laughter clearly enough. A moment later Heechul lets out a high-pitched:

‘Oppa!’

Changmin snaps a pen in half.

  


* * *

  


Yunho is preparing for another big trial, so Changmin stays behind to help him at night. He remembers the last time they pulled an all-nighter together and how he had dozed off at one point and woken up to find Yunho’s jacket over his shoulders and Yunho's eyes softly watching him. This time however, they are not alone. Heechul is blustering around, ordering food for all three of them, colour coding documents to be divided into different sections and telling Yunho off for his poor document formatting skills (why is this paragraph a different size font from the rest?) and basically making himself very useful to have around. He types up Yunho’s hand written amendments like he can actually read Yunho’s chicken scratch.

Changmin is trying to read through a complex expert report when at the corner of his eye, he sees Heechul pass a stack of documents to Yunho. There is pink highlighting scattered through the pages and Changmin realises that Heechul must have gone through each page and highlighted key words. Yunho accepts the documents with a grateful smile.

They work through the night and Changmin finds it difficult to concentrate because Yunho and Heechul are laughing and joking around and for some reason he is so irritated he can hardly see straight.

‘I think I’ll take these folders and finish reading them at home,’ he tells them as he gathers his stuff. ‘Can’t concentrate here anyway.’

He thinks that perhaps he had overreacted and is feeling a little stupid when he walks into the elevator. But just as the doors are about to close, Yunho rushes in and suddenly Changmin is angry all over again.

‘Shouldn’t you be working with Heechul?’

‘I’m going back, I just wanted to see if you were alright.’

Changmin wants to hit him. Then he wants to kiss him, because it’s been a long time since they’ve had any time to themselves and he wishes he could touch Yunho all the time, regardless of where they were.

The elevator suddenly jolts to a stop and it takes Changmin a moment to recover from the shock before realising that Yunho had pressed the emergency button.

‘What are you doing?’ he cries.

‘Do you remember when we first met? It was in this elevator,’ Yunho says softly.

Changmin stares at the floor of the elevator. He remembers the spilled coffee and a warm body against his own. The coffee has long been mopped up and the stain on Yunho’s shirt long removed, but he could still smell the coffee roast in the confined air, just as strong as it had been that morning.

Yunho is suddenly standing very close to him and Changmin’s back is pressed against the elevator wall.

‘I don’t remember,’ he lies, Yunho just smiles at him.

‘You fell on me,’ he says. ‘At the time I didn’t know whether I should hold you to stop you from falling onto the floor.’

His hands are on Changmin's hips. Then he takes one last step and they are pressed flush against each other, chest to chest.

‘Now I want to hold you for a completely different reason.’

Changmin’s eyes flutter shut as he presses his mouth against Yunho’s. His hands land against Yunho’s neck, in his hair and Yunho is using his weight to press him harder against the wall. Changmin hooks one leg around Yunho’s thigh to pull him even closer.

They are trying to remove Yunho’s shirt without losing any body contact when static suddenly fills the air and a voice interrupts to ask if anyone is hurt and tells them that help is on its way.

‘Take your time!’ Changmin shouts at the intercom and hits some random buttons in an attempt to turn it off. Then he looks at Yunho heatedly.

‘We don’t have much time.’

Yunho’s expression turns serious and he kicks his shoes off before reaching straight for Changmin’s belt.

  


* * *

  


Yunho never makes it back to work after they are rescued from the lift and Changmin feels vaguely guilty about leaving Heechul there by himself.

‘He was my first secretary when I joined the firm. He taught me everything I know about how the firm runs, how things should be managed,’ Yunho tells him the next morning while Changmin is trying to fix his tie.

‘Why is he working for you again?’

‘He’s got this fancy title of "Personal Assistant to the Chairman" but everyone knows the chairman is a pig. The chairman is now on extended leave until the affair scandal blows over and when Heechul asked if he could fill in as my secretary, I said yes to help him out.’

When Changmin doesn’t respond, Yunho stills his hand and smiles at him.

‘Are you jealous?’

Changmin snorts.

‘Well you don’t need to be, Changminnie,’ Yunho says and presses their foreheads together. ‘You definitely don’t need to be.’

Changmin considers taking Heechul aside to have a chat when he arrives at the office. Technically they are both working under Yunho and he doesn’t want any animosity between them, especially if it starts to affect their work. The problem is that Heechul is a little intimidating and most of the time, he hardly acknowledges Changmin’s existence.

That is why Changmin nearly falls off his chair when he looks up to find Heechul standing beside his desk.

‘Do you have any photocopying to do?’

‘I thought you didn’t have time for photocopying.’

Heechul smiles wickedly at him, ‘I don’t have time, but the new intern Cho Kyuhyun does and I don’t mind taking some of his time.’

‘I see,’ Changmin says and smiles back at him. ‘In that case I have heaps of photocopying that you can have Cho Kyuhyun help you with.’

They shake hands and it feels like a truce and the beginning of a partnership both at once.

Yunho walks past as he and Heechul are still holding hands and sighs.

‘I don’t even want to know.’

  



End file.
